[Lexicog] new nosey word

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004, Kenneth C. Hill wrote:
> If there is a shwa-like sound in the transition of the s or h (phonetic
> [x]) of srpski or hrvatski, it is so brief as to defy definition as a
> vowel; certainly it's not a nuclear vowel.

I am reminded of an incident in a class in which a brand new sonograph was
demonstrated to us as we passed through a lab.  We did various
extemporaneous tests.  A French student was asked to pronounce a word with
a nasal vowel, which chanced to come between two stops.  Visible in the
sonogram was a short but distinct n.  She was horrified and repeated it
several times without being able to eliminate it.  Still, I feel sure it
was a perfectly valid nasal vowel.  In short, phonetic realization is not
a segmental analysis.  I feel certain that there are vowel-less syllables
in various languages, though their sonograms might sometimes surprise us.
Whether in all cases one might want to call the resulting syllables
vowelless in a segmental analsys would depend on the language and the
analysis.  In some cases yes, in others no.  (Mostly no, I would guess in
English, though the lack of the vowel is probably real enough
phonetically.)

Conversely, there might be quite real phonetic vowels that would *not* be
considered vowels for purposes of a segmental analysis.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing of segmental significance between k and t
in Russian kto.


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